Fodor's may use your email address to send you relevant information on site updates, account changes, and offers. For more information about your privacy and protection, please review our full Privacy Policy.

dusseldorf, a day and night layover- where should we stay?

Hello fellow travelers!
Please help... Looking for a specific place or part of the city to stay that will be easy to get to the airport in the morning. Nothing to expensive, but safe, and easy to explore the city in a half day. Thanks!

hello again, home now.
as no one was able to help us, i thought i'd post an answer to my own question, now that i've been there.

dusseldorf was lovely. we arrived without a hotel reservation, but the extremely helpful tourist information desk (ask!)went online to a tripadvisor-type website and found us a very reasonable apartment for overnight in the Alstadt (old city) as we'd asked. they provided us with easy to follow instructions for the subway (S11) to the regular trains to the Heinrich Heine stop. we got to our easy-to-find apartment at about 4 pm. more on that later.

we walked toward the Rhine, on the advice of the TI intern, to find a French wine and food festival in progress! blocks of crepe makers, sausages made of everything from rabbit to kangaroo, olives, breads and cheeses, wine and absinthe, beer and masses of people sitting, eating, drinking. below that, alongside the river, was a mile of biergardens overlooking the rhine. two ferries that moved sideways across the fast-moving river quickly brought people to the giant carnival on the other side. at one surreal point, about 75 Hell's Angels, in complete regalia, filed across the riverwalk to the ferry group rate line to go to the fair. they were trailed by a dozen polizei in combat gear. the waiter then approached the police with a trayful of beer, which they laughingly refused. the whole riverfront area was vibrant and full of people. we had curry wurst and rosti potatoes, absinthe and altbier. bought french bread, cheeses and pastries for the air travel the next day from the french festival.

the apartment (70 euros!) was large and modern, with a sparkling kitchenette, new bath, and spotty, but free wifi. what we didn't know was that we were in the middle of the hottest part of town, on a friday night, over a club (papagayo) that literally, i mean literally, didn't close until sunrise.

so much for a restful night's sleep. i watched antonia banderas in german for awhile, lol. at 4:30 am the streets were absolutely packed. we had a 9:15 Air Berlin flight, so we dragged ourselves up and out at 6 am, to find the streets being cleaned, random folks passed out who couldn't make it home, and an easy 35 minute trip back to the well-equipped dusseldorf airport.

i'd recommend choosing dusseldorf if you are faced with a layover choice. the alstadt was the perfect place to hang out, but for sleeping sake, we could have stayed a bit out of the main party area, home of the world's longest bar!